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19 Easy Rabbit Hutch DIY Plans

19 Easy Rabbit Hutch DIY Plans

Pet bunnies can live inside the house or outside in the yard. If their habitat is outdoors, it’s called a hutch. You can buy one ready-made, repurpose a chicken coop, or build one from scratch if you’re handy with your … hands. So let’s look at some ideas for a DIY rabbit hutch.

1. Incredible Bunny Beach House Completely Transforms This Backyard

Rabbits and cats have a lot in common, especially if you’re keeping them as pets. And there’s a lot of controversy about whether you should keep them indoors or outdoors. Well, if you have the space and budget for it, why not do both? This DIY rabbit hutch starts in the home.

The rabbits have a small play area in the office with a sliding pet door that leads to an outdoor bunny run. The covered run offers exciting rabbit tunnels with benches on top for the humans. They also have a separate beach house complete with a sandbox for digging.

 

2. DIY Rabbit Hutch – Rogue Engineer

DIY Rabbit Hutch – Rogue Engineer

On the other hand, you may prefer a bunny that lives outdoors full time, since not everyone can handle the shedding and scent that comes with keeping pet rabbits indoors. You can still build a pretty comfy set-up for your bunny. This DIY rabbit hutch has upper and lower areas.

It’s a cute wooden house with a corrugated roof, white wooden frames, and pretty red doors. The walls and floors are made of hardware cloth, which is a type of metal mesh, and the two levels are connected by a ramp. Also, the ground floor lets grass peek through for your rabbit.

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3. Check Out This House’s Incredible Pet Friendly Transformation

Here’s another concept that combines an indoor rabbit room with a DIY rabbit hutch. Lots of rabbit owners struggle because they want their pets to get sunshine and fresh air, but you can’t let them play in the backyard unsupervised. This construction idea solves everything!

By making a pet door that connects the interior and exterior rabbit habitats, your bunnies get the best of both worlds. And you can bury a stainless steel mesh about 8 inches under the hutch so your rabbits can’t dig out and escape. This family also has dogs, cats, and ferrets.

 

4. DIY Rabbit Hutch with Asphalt Roofing – Pinterest

DIY Rabbit Hutch with Asphalt Roofing – Pinterest

Visually, a rabbit hutch and a chicken coop look similar, and you can use these structures for both pets. But hutches don’t typically have perching roosts or egg boxes. They do have ramps and cage wire or hardware cloth. This version is made of wood and wire with green asphalt.

The asphalt is used for roofing, and it provides extra traction for the rabbit ramp. The ramp is in the shade, so it won’t heat up and hurt your bunny’s feet. The mesh grid walls allow ventilation, and since the hutch is on bare grass, bury a stainless steel mesh underneath.

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5. Amazing Rabbit Enclosure Tour – Adri Rachelle

Domesticated rabbits love the outdoors as much as their wild cousins, so this owner brought some inside! Her DIY rabbit hutch is framed around two trees, with protective scaffolding and wooden ramps coiling around the trunks to make a fun but safe multi-level rabbit run.

At the base of the trees, she has built a little hoppiton based on The Shire (#LOTR). It’s a green swathe of fabric wrapped over a network of tunnels that mimic bunny burrows. The hutch also has marble slabs strategically placed so the bunnies can sit on these cooler spots.

 

6. A Kid-Friendly Rabbit Hotel – Instructables

A Kid-Friendly Rabbit Hotel – Instructables

While children love handling rabbits, the construction of most rabbit hutches can be a challenge. They’re largely designed to open from the top, which is too heavy for kids. So unless you want to do all your children’s bunny chores, consider a sliding side door instead.

This hutch has a wire floor with a garden below to catch the poop – it makes great fertilizer. The roof is corrugated plastic and the sides of the hutch are detachable wooden ramps so the bunnies can climb up and down during the day but be safely latched inside when it gets dark.

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7. Best Rabbit Hutch Design Ever! DIY Cheap and Easy!

Country bunnies don’t typically get as much pampering as city-slicking rodents, so they may live in a more rugged DIY rabbit hutch. To make these rabbit cages, fold or cut cage wire into the right shape, connect the walls with J-clips, and mount them onto sturdy wooden frames.

Stool control is easy because the slanted metal sheets drain into the repurposed gutters. This way, you can effortlessly collect the pee and poop for composting or garden manure. If you’re worried about exercise, you can build a few ramps and bunny runs on the sides of the hutch.

 

8. A-Frame Rabbit Hutch – Morning Chores

A-Frame Rabbit Hutch – Morning Chores

If rectangular hutches are too boring for you, consider constructing something triangular instead. The steps are more or less the same, and they involve framing wires with wooden planks to keep them stable. After all, plain wire cages can feel flimsy and seem lightweight.

Some A-frame rabbit hutches have a wire bottom that lets their poop and pee seep through. But if you’re worried about hurting your rabbit’s feet, build the hutch directly on the grass. But dig a few feet under the grass and lay a mesh grid or hardware cloth so they don’t escape.

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9. How To Build A Rabbit Hutch – Better Together Homestead

Now let’s look at the city version of a homesteading hutch in a ‘suburban backyard’. The walls, floor, and ceiling are made of hardwood cloth. It’s easier to work with if you’re not handy because you can staple the wire grids instead of nailing or screwing them into position.

And while there’s controversy about whether the wire harms bunny hocks, you can scatter hay or animal pellets on the floor. These soften the pressure on your rabbit’s feet, and they also help with absorbing the smell of their pee and poop. It’s a low-grade solution that works.

 

10. Scamp and Sooty’s Outdoor Rabbit Run – Tamsen

Scamp and Sooty’s Outdoor Rabbit Run - Tamsen

We’ve looked at some pretty fancy rabbitats, but sometimes, you just want a quick and easy box. This DIY rabbit hutch uses chicken wire for the walls and sides. It’s way thinner than cage wire and hardware cloth, and the wire is bendy rather than rigid. It’s good ventilation.

This style of hutch works well for rabbits that roam free during the day, but it’s too small for a permanent pet dwelling. It sits on the grass at ground level, so don’t forget to bury a wire grid floor a few inches under the grass. This will stop your rabbit from digging its way out.

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11. Build a Rabbit Hutch Design #2 – Stan Sullivan

If you’re repurposing a chicken coop into a rabbit hutch, waste management is a cinch. These coops often have a sliding tray at the bottom which you can conveniently pull out to dispose of their poop. But even if you’re using a rabbit cage with a wire bottom, have protected spots.

This could be an area with a rug, a wooden corner, a piece of tile, a hammock, or a stone slab. The idea is to have an alternative to the wire surface so that if your bunny gets tired or its feet are too strained, it can hop onto this substitute flooring section, lie down, and rest its hocks.

 

12. DIY Rabbit Hutch From Wooden Pallets – Mother Earth News

DIY Rabbit Hutch From Wooden Pallets – Mother Earth News

For the average rabbit owner with minimal handiwork skills, building a DIY rabbit hutch can feel like a stretch. But if you download a plan online and get the right measurements, you can go to Home Depot or your local equivalent and they’ll cut and pre-drill all the parts for you.

That way, you just need a screw gun to assemble your rabbit house. But if you routinely do woodwork projects, you can reclaim bits of wood or get some pallets and shipping crates to convert into a house. And you can still use an online hutch plan as the basis for your build.

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13. Easy Rabbit House – New Rabbit Hutch from Aivituvin!

An even simpler idea for the rabbit owner that’s not into saws, vices, and wires? Go prefab! It’s technically still a DIY rabbit hutch because it comes as a flat pack that you have to set up. But some prefab packs come with tools, and they always have detailed assembly instructions.

Most of these hutches can be completed with a nail gun or staple gun. This model has a sliding tray for poop and sits directly on the grass so you can move it around. But as we keep saying, bunnies can dig their way to freedom, so bury a wire grid under that grass, please!

 

14. Indoor Rabbit Hutch Plan – Mobile Bunny Home

Indoor Rabbit Hutch Plan – Mobile Bunny Home

The DIY rabbit hutch we’ve just looked at is light enough to move around the yard. So you can migrate the bunnies to a cooler, warmer, dryer, or grassier spot if you need to – as long as there’s an underground metal grid to prevent escape. But you have two other options.

One is a rabbit tractor. It’s a lightweight hutch with castors (or sometimes with detachable wheels) so you can shift it as needed. Another option is to construct a mobile bunny hutch like this one. It’s great for travel or as a sleeping spot for a rabbit in a dorm or mobile home.

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15. How to Build a Rabbit Hutch – Cheap and Easy

While the focus of this video is a tool-free DIY rabbit hutch, you can see two other styles in the background. The owner says he prefers hutches without a bottom so he can move them around, but we advise burying a metal grid under the grass for reasons we already explained.

The two hutches in the foreground have open wire roofing, and the main one is connected with zip ties, staples, and gummy straps for easy access. But if you want protection from the sun or rain, you can add a plastic corrugated roof like the hutch that’s closer to the tree line.

 

16. Free Rabbit Hutch Plan – Simple Easy DIY

Free Rabbit Hutch Plan – Simple Easy DIY

We started this list with lavish, extravagant bunny habitats. Or, shall we say, rabbitats. But as we worked our way down, these outdoor enclosures got smaller and smaller! So as you look through DIY rabbit hutch plans, remember that healthy bunnies need lots of space to play!

These tiny rabbit houses are mainly meant for sleeping, and the assumption is that your bunny roams free during the day and only goes in the hutch to eat or sleep. For a full-time enclosure with no outside time, ensure the rabbit house has plenty of room to hop and run.

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17. Polyface Farm Style Chicken Rabbit Lawn Tractor

We’ve mentioned rabbit tractors, and here’s an example. It doesn’t have wheels or castors, but it has a light structure and convenient handles so you can easily drag it around the yard. It works for both bunnies and chickens. Use rigid hardware cloth instead of chicken wire.

As she mentions – and we’ve said it too – does (female rabbits of reproductive age) will dig their way out, so if you don’t want to bury a wire grid under the cage, never leave the bunny unsupervised and always bring her to a safer enclosure for the night. Bucks are fine though.

 

18. Building a Small Rabbit Hutch – Instructables

Building a Small Rabbit Hutch – Instructables

The simplest type of DIY rabbit hutch to build is a boxy one like this. Most of the rabbitat is chicken wire, but one side is made of wood to give your bunny a hidey hole for privacy and comfort. You can see the chicken wire on the sides is bendy, so it warps and sags over time.

But for the bottom, they’ve used a stiffer gauge of wire such as hardware cloth. You could also use 14-gauge or 16-gauge wire, that’s even more rigid. This hutch is on the smaller side so it should only be for sleeping. Otherwise, your bunny will get restless and claustrophobic.

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19. Building a Rabbit Hutch for Less than $50.00 (Follow-up)

For our final DIY rabbit hutch, we’re looking at a pocket-friendly build by B&B Outdoor Adventures. Their initial rabbitat only cost $50, and the original video is linked at the end. But using feedback from his fans, he upgraded the rabbit hutch design to improve its quality.

Charlie explains the specific changes he has made and the reasoning behind it, which is a nice touch. And you know this rabbit hutch works in extreme weather because there’s some heavy snowfall halfway through the project. The cost is still low and the hutch is way better.

 

What kind of hutch is your bunny using now? Share some photos in the comments section!